Jamie Taylor, Graham Harvey, Andy Champion, Freddie Krone @ Durham University Music Dept. - March 8

Jamie Taylor (guitar); Graham Harvey (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); Freddie Krone (drums)

In the lee of  Durham Cathedral, Divinity House (Durham University's music department) attracted a capacity audience. The plan was three established names - Jamie Taylor, Graham Harvey and Andy Champion - would play a trio concert, to be joined later in the evening by Durham University final year music student, drummer Freddie Krone. Indeed the publicity poster for the evening proclaimed: An Evening of Jazz: Jamie Taylor, Graham Harvey and Andy Champion. 

However, as Jamie Taylor explained, having met Freddie Krone for the first time earlier in the day (at about 4:20pm in the afternoon), after two minutes running through one or two things, he  suggested Krone should join them from the off, making it a quartet concert performance. Imagine how Freddie must have felt receiving a vote of confidence like this from a seasoned professional!

Lounge suit attire (no tie), Taylor and co opened with I've Never Been in Love Before. Call it what you will - 'mainstream', 'straight-ahead' - from first note to last, we were listening to superb, swinging jazz. Let's call it 'modern jazz', from an era when jazz was, well, 'modern jazz'. Recado Bossa Nova (JazzMain played it recently at the Lit & Phil), a tricky Tricotism, it was worth making the journey through to the Land of the Prince Bishops by the dreaded 'bus replacement' service thanks to engineering works on the East Coast mainline.

How was Freddie doing? From his expressionless visage, it was difficult to tell how he thought he was doing. To these ears, Freddie was doing just fine, more than. A cracking Soft Winds took us up to the interval. 

Second set, nominal bandleader Jamie Taylor played some scintillating guitar, likewise, seated at the Steinway, Graham Harvey played some dazzling piano solos. And then there was the man at the back, bassist Andy Champion. Introduced by Taylor as 'the great Andy Champion', no one was arguing. 

Jobim's little-performed Picture in Black and White worked well, Freddie K sight-reading, a picture of concentration. Miles Davis' Dig from the early fifties (Walter Bishop Jr., Tommy Potter, Art Blakey), filtered through an imagined pall of smoke in the recording studio, here in twenty first century Durham, this was modern jazz, you dig? To close, Jamie Taylor asked Freddie Krone what he would like to play. Freddie didn't hesitate, calling I Want to Be Happy. This was Freddie's moment in the spotlight. He took it, soloing with authority. 

It was to be three, it turned out to be four, a quartet gig to remember. Jamie, Graham, and Andy, the tops, joined for the evening by Mr Freddie Krone, a young man who is going places. A marvellous night.  Russell                                

 

Set list: I've Never Been in Love Before; Recado Bossa Nova; Tricotism; Stairway to the Stars; Just You, Just Me/Evidence; Soft Winds; Picture in Black and White; Dig; I Want to be Happy.